Up next at the TCA press tour in L.A….
TV One, a cable network targeting adult black viewers, will launch “News One Now,” a weekday morning news program “tailor-made for the African-American community,” in September. Roland S. Martin will serve as host and managing editor. The show, based in Washington, D.C., will operate across three platforms, radio, TV and NewsOne.com, a website from Radio One’s web division.

Veteran journalist Martin was previously the host of TV One’s “Washington Watch with Roland Martin,” the precursor to this show.

“There is a need in the marketplace for a daily news service that speaks for, advocates for, the African-American community,” according to TV One CEO and President Alfred C. Liggins III.

Martin cited research regarding black home foreclosures, employment, purchasing, business startups… saying those discussions are not happening on the existing cable TV news networks. Pop culture will be a part of the mix along with politics, he said. For instance, Martin suggested, he would consider what the portrayal of black women on “Scandal” say about the community?

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.